Tell Whole Foods to Stop Killing Bunnies!

House Rabbit Society, along with SaveABunny and three dozen other rabbit rescue groups that make up Rabbit Advocacy Network, is asking all Whole Foods customers to express their displeasure with Whole Foods’ decision to sell rabbit meat in eight regions around the country (Northern California, North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, South, Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and the Washington, DC metro area).

Whole Foods Market is the largest natural foods grocery store in the US, with over 370 stores in North America. It’s the 99th largest retail chain in the world, and in the U.S. is only outranked by Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, Supervalu, Publix, and HEB. That means that by adding rabbit meat to Whole Foods stores, the company is both creating and inflating a demand for rabbit meat, meaning that hundreds of thousands–or even MILLIONS–more rabbits will be killed every single year in this country, simply to satisfy the demands of a few customers.

Whole Foods, a store that is shopped at by millions of consumers who care about animals and don’t want them harmed, will now be adding, for the first time ever, a widely beloved pet to their meat cases in order to bring in the profits of those shoppers who have requested them. The rabbits raised for meat are exactly the same as the rabbits living in our homes, snoozing on our couches, begging for treats in the kitchen, and trading nose bonks with the family cat.

Rabbit operation at True Grass Farms, purchased by Oz in 2013

These are the rabbits who will be bred over and over (Oz Farms, one of the growers who will be supplying Whole Foods in Northern California, brags that “one rabbit can produce up to 320 pounds of meat in a year in just a small area” — Press Democrat, June 20, 2014) until they are spent, while their babies (called “fryers”) are slaughtered, with no protection from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.

We have outlined exactly how Whole Foods’ rabbits are raised here, and slaughtered here. Please read these pages to find out exactly what Whole Foods “humane standards” mean.

Whole Foods needs to hear from their customers, and all animal lovers, that this is not acceptable. Please make your voices heard and tell Whole Foods to stop selling rabbit meat!